SMDC: Test of Army's first satellite in over 50 years shows the small orbiter can help soldiers

Michael Mercier/The Huntsville TimesA team of young engineers handles the controls at Redstone Arsenal for the Army Space and Missile Defense Command's SMDC-ONE nanosatellite program, including Jacqueline Nelson, Ryan Wolff and Mark Ray, foreground.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Less than two hours after its launch at Cape Canaveral last month, a team of young Space and Missile Defense Command engineers was in contact with the Army's first satellite in more than 50 years.

They hadn't expected to "talk" with SMDC-ONE for a few days as it settled into orbit. But their pre-launch preparations were precise and they were working with the breadbox-sized satellite on its first pass over their lab on Redstone Arsenal.

"I think there was cheering," said Jacqueline Nelson, 22. "We were hoping for the best, but ..."

"There wasn't much breathing beforehand," said Ryan Wolff, 23.

"For those of us that were actually on the console, I don't think it really hit us at first," said Mark Ray, 25, an engineering lead for the program.

It was an auspicious beginning for the first satellite launched in the "Space and Missile Defense Command - Operational Nanosatellite Effect" or SMDC-ONE program. The mission, basically, is to find out whether a group of small and relatively inexpensive satellites - about $300,000 each, compared to $1 billion or more for a traditional military or communications satellite - would be an effective way for commanders on the ground to get and share information.

The performance of this first satellite and ground stations at Redstone Arsenal and SMDC's battle lab in Colorado Springs, Colo., far exceeded expectations, said John London, nanosatellite technology manager for SMDC's Technology Center.

"We thought it would work," he said, during a Wednesday press conference at the arsenal. "We didn't expect it to work as well as it did."

SMDC-ONE hitchhiked into low Earth orbit on Dec. 8 with other small satellites aboard the private company SpaceX's launch of its two-stage Falcon 9 booster rocket and prototype reusable space capsule, Dragon.

After 35 days, it fell toward Earth and was destroyed during re-entry, as expected. In the meantime, as it traveled overhead four or five times a day, engineers worked odd hours, gathering data about power generation, battery life, signal strength, performance of the backpackable ground control stations and much more.

Tests were also conducted using data from Unattended Ground Stations, affectionately called "ugs," said Dave Weeks, chief engineer. It was thought those experiments wouldn't be possible until later launches.

A variety of UGS are used by soldiers now, he said. They can be set up on the perimeter of a Forward Operating Base for protection, or in any area soldiers want to monitor.

Some are sensitive to seismic disturbances, such as a heavy truck rolling by, while others might just reveal or count movements. Unfortunately, soldiers have to remain relatively close to the UGS to get the information, putting them at higher risk of detection by the enemy.

During SMDC-ONE's flight, a UGS was set up in a parking lot at Redstone Arsenal which relayed data and pictures to the satellite overhead and on to the personnel in Colorado.

"That was a militarily relevant demonstration using sensors such as those deployed in the field, in theater, now," Weeks said.

Ray said the small satellite's coverage area is about 1,200 miles, or roughly the area from the arsenal to Colorado Springs. It would take a small constellation of them to ensure that one is always overhead a particular region.

But London pointed out that they are much less expensive, so more can be put in place at less cost. They can also be more easily upgraded or changed out as missions and conditions on the ground evolve.

"It exceeded our expectations significantly," London said of the first mission. "Our goal was to demonstrate that a satellite this size could provide relevant capability for the warfighter. We succeeded in doing that."

It has been a uniquely satisfying experience for the program's young engineers, students and interns, described by one official as "the new core of engineers coming in" to SMDC.

"I think all of us are really grateful for the opportunity to be involved in this ... at this stage of the game," Nelson said. She got her bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida in May of 2010.

"Within one month of my start date, they had me in Washington charging the batteries on the satellite in preparation for launch," Wolff said. He received his master's in electrical engineering from the University of Louisville last May.

"The fact that we've been able to be involved to the extent that we have is just awesome," said Ray, who has a master's in electrical engineering from Auburn University. "It doesn't happen everywhere."

In April 2009, SMDC received eight of the four-kilogram satellites at the end of a design, development and test effort led by Miltec of Huntsville, Pericle Communications of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Clyde Space Limited of Glasgow, Scotland.

Two of the remaining nanosatellites could fly for further tests this year.

The ultimate goal is to have regular launches of the inexpensive satellites as secondary payloads aboard other rockets, or put them in orbit virtually on demand by a new class of smaller booster rocket, the Multipurpose NanoMissile System.

Dynetics in Huntsville is already working on MNMS, which has a goal of putting a nanosat in orbit at a cost of about $1 million. That team hopes to have a sub-orbital flight test, complete with satellite, this year and an orbital test in 2012.